Mary Smiling over All the Good Reviews!

Katia Grubisic writes in the Montreal Review of Books: "Mary Soderstrom might just be my new favourite writer. She’s been writing for years, and we’ve been reading her for years, but meeting her reveals an energy that is contagious, and a humility that should be. Soderstrom in person is as unassuming, open, and delightful as she is erudite and elegant on the page.... "

Great Reviews for Road through Time

This just in: a terrific review of Road through Time in the April 15 Library Journal that ends: "VERDICT This accessible work about an integral aspect of human life is a must-read for all interested in society, past and present."

And Publishers' Weekly also is laudatory:"Soderstrom constructs a...layperson’s guide in bright, conversational prose, skillfully using her own experiences and just-so stories about the peoples of the past as springboards to exploring humankind’s long history of migration." Publishers' Weekly"

Mary Soderstrom's fifth Non-fiction book will be available soon!

First Review of Road through Time

What Musicians Say about River Music

It's always nice when people that you write about like what you write. I'm no musician, and one of the big unknowns about River Music was what musicians might think. In fact, I was so unsure that I went out of my way not to ask musicians I knew what their opinion was.

But to my great delight, the reaction of musicians has been spontaneous and very positive. Here are three:

"Gloria, is tough and not always likable and yet, I had to recognize some of her difficult choices as merely typical of what a musician, especially a woman, has to do in order to succeed in the competitive world of music."

Now Available: Making Waves, The Continuing Portuguese Adventure

Buy through Pay Pal on Vehicule's site, or at better bookstores

The Walkable City Keeps on Going: New Review in the Canadian Literature

"Soderstrom would readily admit that her general argument in favour of pedestrian-friendly communities is not a new one: walkability is a firmly established principle of sustainability-oriented planning. However, the book serves as a fine, up-to-date introduction to this still-pertinent issue. Soderstrom’s judiciously selective overview of the history of walking and its changing place in urban life (from Roman settlements to nineteenth-century Paris to post-war North American suburbs to newer master-planned communities in Brazil and Singapore) makes engaging, informative reading for the generalist or readers new to the topic."Maia Joseph in Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticsm and Review.

The Walkable City Gets Praise from Urbanist Christopher Leinberger

"Mary Soderstrom's The Walkable City addresses one of the most important environmental, economic, social, public health and foreign policy issues of our day that is also the most unexpected and simplest; building walkable urban places. Using an approach I personally enjoy, taking a long historical perspective from pre-history through the various ages of city building, Ms. Soderstrom demonstrates that we as a civilization know how to build walkable cities. We just have to speed up our efforts."Christopher Leinberger, The Brookings Institution

The Walkable City: Haussmann's Boulevards to Jane Jacobs Street

Now available from independent booksellers and on Amazon.ca. Véhicule Press. ISBN: 978-1-55065-243-7

More about The Violets of Usambara

Kim Barry Brunhuber seems to like The Violets of Usambara a lot: his review "These diamonds are a girl's worst enemy" appeared in The Globe and Mail Saturday, June 14, 2008. He says "the novel is a wonderfully matter-of-fact portrayal of two pragmatic characters struggling to find themselves and reconnect with each other." Check it out.

The book is available at independent bookstores and Chapters/Indigo stores throughout Canada and online through Amazon.ca, which will ship to the US.

Gardening in Quebec from a Brazilian Perspective

Loaded Web

Copyright notice

All text and photos in this blog are the work of Mary Soderstrom unless otherwise indicated, and so are copyright in her name under Canadian copyright laws. Please have the courtesy to ask before you reproduce.

Thursday, 26 July 2007

Department of: I thought we'd solved at least part of this problem

Ask any gardener about fertilizer and you’ll hear that it’s necessary to keep a garden blooming and green. If you don’t enrich the soil, after a few years plants won’t thrive because essential nutrients will be used up. But what kind of fertilizer to use is a big question—chemical ones, or more natural soil additives like home-made compost and composted manure? I’ve used the latter kinds ever since I started gardening more or less seriously, with pretty good results.

But even organic, natural substances like manure can cause problems, particularly when they’re spread on fields in great quantities. The problem is compounded by other kinds of fertilizer used in intensive agriculture, and by people who pour on the Vigoro to keep the lawns at the cottage green The nutrients which make plants grow will also make blue green algae grow in lakes and rivers, and one species of the tiny organisms can produce toxins that can kill you

The first of the week, provincial officials announced that there are now 72 lakes and water courses in Quebec where blue green algae growth may cause health problems. Better controls on run-off from animal feed lots and from farm fertilizers are absolutely necessary,Greenpeace Quebec said on Tuesday. The provincial government should also ban dishwasher detergent containing phosphate, it added.

Actually I thought that phosphates were taken out of detergents more than 30 years ago: my first political action in Canada was a campaign by STOP, an anti-pollution group, which I had believed was successful. But it seems that in 1972 the regulations on the stuff you use in dishwashers were relaxed (although they seem to be still in effect for laundry detergent.) Good lord, you’ve got to pay attention all the time, don’t you?

In the absence of government action, Greenpeace suggests you buy dishwasher detergent without phosphate and call the stores where you trade to urge them to stop carrying offending soaps. Here is Greenpeace's list of acceptable dishwasher detergents: